Ink, Blood and Peanut Butter
52 Weeks of Cooking, Week 14: Ink Blood Sister Scribe
“...she sometimes felt so alone she worried she might vanish like the ink in an overused book. But here, with wildlife all around her and magic sweet in the air like good cider, she felt her lines and colours returning, her edges darkening, her core filling in.”
― Emma Törzs, Ink Blood Sister Scribe
This week’s theme was Local Produce. Unfortunately, it’s early spring and the only thing in season right now is…(checks calendar)…kale and lettuce.
I enjoy leafy greens, but since I made salad for last week’s meal, I decided to get creative with the theme and make a meal with items that are produced locally.
This week’s meal, inspired by Emma Torz’s novel Ink Blood Sister Scribe, is a creative take on chili, using ground beef from a local butcher, beer from a local brewery, chocolate from a local chocolatier and the secret ingredient, local peanut butter.
The book
Ink Blood Sister Scribe was such a brilliant, fantastical novel, where books are written with blood and read to produce magic. Joanna and Esther have grown up watching their father collect, read and protect these magical texts. Joanna shares her father’s ability to read magic, while Esther appears not to be magical at all. But when their father is killed by one of his spell books, Joanna and Esther discover a whole new world, of traveling through mirrors, books made of flesh and blood and Scribes. I loved Joanna and Esther’s relationship in this book — all of the characters were great. And I especially adored the world-building and magic systems. The magic books feel both comforting and dangerous all at once. I’d love to read a sequel.
The food
In the book, Esther teases Joanna about her predilection for adding unexpected ingredients when she cooks — like peanut butter in chili.
Surprisingly, peanut butter is not an uncommon chili ingredient and there are several recipes online. I love peanut butter, so I was stoked to try this recipe, which is based on a New York Times recipe and also includes chocolate and stout.
First, saute the onions, then add your spices — it’s quite a mix — and chipotle peppers in adobe. Then add in your ground beef — we got ours from Rosie’s Hometown Meats, our local butcher.
After the beef is cooked through, add in the tomatoes, beef and beef stock. I used a dry Irish stout produced at Athentic Brewery, a local brewery. Simmer for about 20 minutes, then add in your beans, chocolate and peanut butter, stirring until the chocolate and peanut butter are melted. For the chocolate, I used a very dark bar from Condor Chocolates; for the peanut butter, I chose two tablespoons of Georgia Grinders creamy peanut butter.
Serve with your favorite chips and chili toppings; though we live in Georgia, we chose to serve ours Cincinnati-style over spaghetti noodles.
The verdict? I’m not the biggest chili fan, but this was a very good chili. The beef was tender, and the peanut butter added a wonderful creamy richness. Poured over spaghetti noodles with some Monterey Jack cheese, it was perfect. I thought this chili also had a pleasant heat, but if you want it hotter, add more chipotle peppers to the mix.
Next week: Out of the Box